The News In Shorts

How the news would look if everyone stopped waffling and told the truth.

Friday, 1 June 2012

U-Turn, Diversion Or Grubby Climb Down?

While Jeremy Hunt was doing his best to appear innocent at the Leveson Enquiry, George Osbourne suddenly announced that he was reversing his policy on capping donations to charity. It was immediately seized on by the press as an example of an obvious diversionary tactic to take the heat out of Hunt's appearance. Meanwhile David Cameron has reiterated his position that Hunt's behaviour will not be investigated by Sir Alex Allen, his adviser on the ministerial code. But, of course, all of this was quickly noticed by the press who have put two and two together and made twenty-two. What slipped most of them by was another story that caused fewer ripples in this rather stagnant pond. This was the story that John Moulton the venture capitalist and a major "donator" to the Tory party was going to cut the purse strings in retaliation over the charity cap. Now why, you might ask, would he do that? After all he couldn't possibly be engaged in some sort of charity scam that enabled him to dodge tax liabilities could he? No, he says, its because it will hurt charities. The major charities, however, have pointed out that they rarely receive donations that even begin to approach the cap and that most of their money comes from small donations given by ordinary people. Strangely enough Mr.Moulton is also calling for even greater austerity and doesn't seem to mind too much about the damage that would inflict on ordinary people or the liklihood that would damage donations to charities to an even greater degree. As for George Osbourne's decision to reverse the cap, that couldn't possibly have anything to do with £300,000 that Mr.Moulton has donated to the Tories since 2004 - could it?